According to the recent outlook of the World Bank, Bangladesh has achieved a marked progress in lifting up the number of people living under extreme poverty level, given that the rate took a sharp decline to 12.9% from 18.5% in 2010. Because of Bangladesh's impressive gains on poverty alleviation, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim plans to travel to Bangladesh as part of a global 'End Poverty Day' campaign. In two new reports by the World Bank, Bangladesh has stood out as a glaring example to the rest of the world on how to overcome poverty and increase opportunities.

The United Nations (UN) has accepted Bangladesh's proposal of creating “Global Compact on Migration” to improve migration governance and protect refugees during emergencies. According to news reports, decision has been finalized by the member states to adapt the framework. The global compact may be a binding agreement for the member states that will have political commitment to protect the migrants and refugees under the UN framework. During her address to the UN General Assembly, the Bangladesh Premier proposed for the global compact on migration on Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants.

Appreciating Bangladesh's policy of “zero tolerance” towards terrorism and violent extremism, the United States has lauded the government for not allowing its territory to be used for terrorist activities against other countries.The US also applauded Bangladesh government's efforts to control terrorist activities after the July 1 Holey Artisan attack by involving all relevant agencies, and the launch of a specialized Counterterrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) Unit under the Dhaka Metropolitan Police. The appreciation came from a visiting US delegation which participated in the fifth round of the Bangladesh-United States Security Dialogue.

Preparations have been rolled out to construct 30 more power plants with the generation capacity of 10,743 Megawatt (MW) to ensure smooth and uninterrupted power supply across the country. Over the last seven years, the power generation capacity reached a record high, with around 78% people gaining access to electricity. Now the total number of power stations has gone up to 107, the Awami League government has led the country to take a quantum leap in realization of its electoral promise of ensuring electricity for all by 2021.

With a goal to put an end to forgery, HPM Sheikh Hasina has inaugurated the distribution of smart national ID cards this week. Installed with 25 security measures, the machine-readable card will have 32 types of basic information of a citizen embedded in its microchip. Anyone will be able to verify some basic information of a smart card by using the cardholder's fingerprint through a desktop or laptop computer after installing software which would soon be available via www.nidw.gov.bd Announcement has been made that around 90 million people will receive the card by December next.

Works are well underway to make a new law to provide one-stop service to entrepreneurs in a bid to facilitate trade and investment in the country. The key objectives of the proposed law styled 'Bangladesh One-Stop Service Act' are to lessen the existing lead time faced by the businesses in obtaining services from different government agencies. The legislative section of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs is now preparing the draft of the proposed law. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and experts have hailed the move and forecasted that this initiative, once implemented, will result in a rise in the investment sector.

Bangladesh has ratified the trade facilitation agreement (TFA) of the WTO, which is likely to expedite the movement, release and clearance of goods, including goods in transit. Bangladesh's WTO Ambassador Shameem Ahsan submitted the country's instrument of acceptance to Director-General of World Trade Organization Roberto Azevedoin September last week, the WTO said on its website. With the approval of TFA, costs for cross-border trade -- exports and imports -- will go down because of the automation, documentation and harmonized system for charges. Accordingly, corruption and time for transportation will also be reduced.

Bangladesh has finally got the right to dot bangla (.bangla) domain to express its identity internationally. Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) made the announcement of allocating the .bangla domain in favour of Bangladesh. It's one more achievement of Bangla language after the endorsement of February 21 as the International Mother Language Day. Overcoming a long procedural fight, Bangladesh has won it due to the strong role of the Posts and Telecommunications Division (PTD).

The government has announced to undertake a project to set up 10,000 Sheikh Russel digital labs (computer labs) at educational institutions across the country. Already 5,500 computer labs and 30,000 multimedia classrooms were set up at educational institutes in the country. In addition, process is also going on to extend digital facilities in 1,70,000 educational institutes from class VI to XII across the country. This initiative, among others, will help the country's aspirations to fetch US$ 1 billion ICT export earnings by 2018 and US$ 5 billion by 2021.